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47
and badly-ventilated rooms, and amongst the densely
inhabited districts of our large cities and towns.
The activity of these poisons may be destroyed in
exactly the same way as the more active specific
poisons of which I have just spoken. They are
oxidised and their vitality destroyed by fresh air and
pure water containing oxygen. The same disinfectants
may be employed for their destruction.
These germs are constantly given off from privies,
drains, and water-closets, and the various kinds of
disinfectants of which I have spoken should be
constantly used in those places where these germs
are given off. Carbolic Acid, Chloralum, Sulphate
of Iron, &c., should more especially be used in the
summer season for the purifying of all accumulations
of putrefying and smelling matter
One of the most effectual means of destroying
these germs and hastening their decomposition, is
the covering them with common garden mould. On
this principle earth closets have been recommended
where water-closets cannot be employed. Ten years
ago I expressed my conviction to you, that a more
economical and effectual way of dealing with the
sewage of our towns, would be to mix it at once with
earth, and thus render it easily available as manure.
Since then this plan has been adopted in many
parts of the country with perfect success.
The power of mould or garden soil, to render
innocuous these poison-germs, seem to reside in the
power which the particles of the soil have of introducing
Oxygen to the poisonous agent, and thus of